Betterment's 270,000 users can now message financial advisers through the app

Betterment, a roboadviser with $US9.8 billion under management, is giving its 270,000 customers access to financial advisers.

Betterment customers will now be able to send messages to the firm’s 12 human financial advisers via their Betterment mobile app.

The firm’s vice president of financial advice, Alex Benke, said the new service will make it easier for users to ask a broad range of questions related to financial advice. Users can expect to get a response in about one business day, according to a statement from the company.

“You can send them a message on the subway, and get back to them whenever it is convenient,” Alex Benke told Business Insider during an interview.

Roboadvisers provide financial advice or portfolio management online or via a smartphone application. Rather than using human managers to build portfolios, they use algorithms to determine where to invest. The new service is the firm’s latest push to respond to the desire for human help among wealth-management consumers.

In February, Betterment rolled out two new hybrid services that pair human help with its computerised financial advice: Betterment Plus and Betterment Premium. According to Benke, those two plans will now be consolidated into one hybrid plan that offers unlimited face-to-face interaction with a financial adviser